People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — THE SILVER DEBATE. [ARTICLE]

THE SILVER DEBATE.

Bynop«U of the Discussion in the United Stales Senate. On the 30th Mr. Sherman (rep.. O.) spoke on Che bill to repeal the silver purchasing clauses ot the Sherman act He said that if the repeal of the purchasing clauses of the act of July, 1890, were the only reason for the extraordinary session, it would •sem to him insufficient It was, however, justified by the existing financial stringency. On one thing congress and the people agreed, and that was that both gold and silver should be continued In use as money. Monometallism pure and simple had never gained a foothold tn the United States. If senators wanted cheap money and an advance in prices free coinage of silver was the way to do it; but they should not call it bimetallism. Senator Sherman then proceeded to discuss the history of the act that bears bls name He ■was not in favor of the free coinage of silver, and regarded it as but another name for the monometalism of silver, and was only in favor of the purchase of ■liver for purposes of coining. The conferrees of the two houses agreed upon their differences, and in that agreement secured the repeal of the Bland-Allison act Senator Sherman reminded senators that when they criticised the law that ■was misnamed after him. they should remember that this law now on the statute books was far better than either the house bill or that passed by the senate. The decline in the volume of silver was due, Senator Sherman said, to the fact that we were called upon to pay our •debts debts payable in gold. England was the great creditor country and we should neither be ashamed of nor hate her; we are her children and partake much of the characteristics of the parent stock. England’s losses in the Argentine Republic had to be made good and she returned our securities and demanded the gold needed to save her own institutions from going down. For the first time also in a number of years the balance of trade was against us and we had to make the difference good. With regard to the Sherman law, Senator Sherman said bs believed in “giving the devil his 4u*” and was ready to stand by the law, not as a measure in which he took any special pride, for he was compelled to yield in order to prevent disastrous legislation. But without this law what would the country have done in 1891 and 1892 had it been called upon then to meet the difficulties now staggering us? He was not a new convert to the repeal of the law, and a year ago he bad introduced a bill to suspend the operations of the law. It was worded almost exactly like that of Senator Voorhees. Why did not the democratic senators then see the dangers they now see, and come to the help of the republicans when they sought to suspend the law? Not a democratic vote was had then and democrats must answer why.

"The president, in the midst of the panic, appeals to us to repeal this law, and he will not make this appeal to me in vain. I have no sympathy with him in politics, but I believe that in this matter he is right, and that it is my duty to respond to his call I will cooperate in any measure that will tend to maintain the harmonious use of silver and gold as standards of value I hope that the next measure of relief which my friend from Indiana (Senator Voorhees) will provide will be a broad, liberal measure, authorizing the president or the secretary of the treasury, whichever he prefers, to exercise the power, if necessary, to sell securities in order to maintain the parity of all our currency." Senator Sherman then began a discussion of The various coinage laws of the United States, with special reference to the act of 1873, which had, he said, been the subject of so much misrepresentation and falsehood in this debate. He denied Mr. Voorhees’ statement that that act (the act of 1873), was a “stealthy demonetization.”

Senator Voorhees replied tnathe never intended to refer to the senator from Ohio, for four years ago he had effectually cleared himself from any participation in that matter. “It is strange,” said Senator Sherman, “that on the vote on this bill that the distinguished senator from Nevada (Senator Stewart) voted for it and I, ’the devil fish,’ voted against it” The last remark was in reference to an epithet applied to Senator Sherman during the debate in the house last week. Senator Stewart retorted that in due time he would explain how became to vote for the bill Senator Sherman quoted from speeches made by Senator Stewart in tie senate in 1873 and 1874 these words: “I want the standard gold, and no paper money that is not redeemable in gold. By this process we shall ceme to a specie basis and when the laborer shall receive his dollar it will have the same purchasing power of a dollar. Gold is the universal standard of the world. Everybody knows that.” Recurring to the suggestion of authorizing the issue of bonds Senator Sherman said: “I am willing to trust your executive officers. If you are not, it is a strange attitude in political affairs. I would give them power to protect the credit of the government against all enemies at home and abroad. If the fight must be for the ■possession of gold, I would use our cotton and our corn and our wheat, and I would protect our credit against all mankind. As to silver, I would way that we prefer to wait awhile until the skies are clear, until we see the effects of the suspension of silver coinage in India and see what arrangements can be made for another international monetary conference. In the meantime let the United States stand on its strength and credit. I think that soon all these clouds will be dissipated and that we may go home to our friends with the conviction that we have done a good work tor our country at targe.”

Mr. Teller (rep.. Col) concluded his speech cn the national bank circulation bill He assumed from newspaper articles which he quoted that a scheme had been ■organized early in the season in New York for the purpose of creating a financial panic that would compel at an extra session the repeal of the purchasing -clause of the Sherman act He would not have anyone infer that the bankers had intended to create the condition of affairs that now existed, but he did believe that they had intended to create distrust that would compel the president to call congress in extraordinary session and thus secure action, first, on the repeal of the purchasing clause, and, second, on the question of issuing a large amount of government bonds. But the panic had got away from them. They tad rather overdone the business, had fright--ened the people more than they had intended "•a Now they had nobody but themselves to -blame and they should not complain. He attacked the national banks, declaring that, as banks of issue, they had been as great failures as they had shown themselves to be as banks ■of deposit and banks of exchange. It was the prerogative of the United to issue its own currency and this was a good time to reform its banking system. He would not, by his vote, put any more power into the hands of the banks of the country. He would not enable them any longer to paralyze the business of the country as they ■were doing to-day. If he had a fair opportunity to wipe them out he would wipe them out as quickly as he could. He was opposed to the present system. He desired to withdraw from the banks the privileges they now possessed. On the 31st ult. Mr. Wolcott (rep., Col.) spoke against the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman act He said there was no criticism to be made respecting the policy of the administration. Criticism of the secretary of the treasury was also misplaced because he was a member of the president's household and committed to his policy. Nor was the president open to stricture be•cause of his message, for he had always been a consistent opponent of silver coinage. The ■west knew last year that whoever was elected its reliance must be placed in congress, which had more than once risen above the personal wishes of the exeeutive. Be sarcastically referred to the great number ■of senators who, professing to be bimetallists, held that an international agreement was neo■essary, and pointed out that thereby they accepted the single gold policy of England. Senator Wolcott paid his respects to Senator Voorhees and said that his change of front was remarkable. He attacked the senator’s record on silver and national banks, and quoted from the senator’s article last year -in the North American lieview, to show his lack of consistency, and asserted that now for the first time he (Voorhees), supposed to represent the masses, and Sherman,

supposed to represent the classes, were in complete accord in financial matters. Free coinage by separate act, he said, was impossible, as the president would undoubtedly veto such a measure. Any man who vouched for Mr. Cleveland as a bimetallist would vouch for the man in the moon. Why not act now on the whole financial question? If this should pass and silver be, as it must, absolutely dethroned and degraded. he knew of no reason why any senator who believed in free coinage should ever cast another vote in favor of protection in any form. He had demonstrated a few days ago the folly of the statement that the repeal of the Sherman act would restore confidence. This was a bankers' panic, and if you asked a banker to-day how the repeal was to restore confidence he could not tell you It seemed unaccountable that in panic times banks should not desire an increased volume of the money. Their plan was, however, after repeal to ask for the issue of (100,000,000 of gold bonds, and they had good reason to believe that a complacent finance committee would authorize such a bill

The people of the far northwest favored the resumption of free silver coinage because they believed in bimetallism. They were not inflationists; they did not advocate flat money. They believed that, as Senator Jones had happily put ft, the rude obstacles which nature had interposed offer a better safeguard for the people than the wisdom or unwisdom of their rulers. They opposed the single standard because there was not enough gold to do the business of the world and furnish iu inhabitants with the currency they needed. Twenty years' experience had emphasized the experience of centuries. Silver had not depreciated, but gold had appreciated. The question as to whether silver should be demonetized bv this bill was national and not local If he represented any other section, with his knowledge of the possibilities of the great west* he would be equally tenacious for the preservation of the white metal as a standard of value. No man removed from the money centers and realizing the illimitable resources of this republic and its constantly increasing needs would ever stand for the contraction of a currency already insufficient There could be no stronger bulwark of a country’s safety than that she produce her own coin for her own people and is not dependent for it on foreign nations. If the mining states alone were to suffer by unconditional repeal they would suffer with out a word in the interest of a mistaken policy for the public good; but there was no section of the country that was not likewise being devoted to disaster and impoverishment If the contest for the people was to be won it must be because against the selfish demands of the east was arrayed the united votes of the south and the west They were standing together Jon this great question to save the common country from greater suffering and impoverishment than even the horrors of war could inflict, and by their united votes to malntalnjnot alone the standard of both gold and silver, contemplated b.v the constitution and consecrated by centuries of usage, but to maintain as well a standard of American independence and American manhood. Mr. Caffery (dem., La.) delivered his maiden speech and advocated the unconditional repeal of the purchasing clauses of the Sherman act. He warned the senator from Colorado (Mr. WoL cott) that if he expected to smile away the serious money troubles of the country as Cervantes had laughed away chivalry and romance from Spain he was doomed to signal failure; The whole country, Mr. Caffery said, was face to face with a financial situation unprecedented in any age or in any country. With 863,000,000,000 of wealth; with factory and farm overflowing the country with fabric and food; with banks entirely solvent and firms entirely prosperous; with a people blessed by Providence beyond the measure of blessings bestowed on other lands and other people, they were suddenly arrested in the pursuit of wealth and paralyzed in the midst of activity. Deposits were drawn from the banks; investors abstained from new enterprises and discontinued old ones; banks were closed with safes full of assets and business men suspended with stores full of goods. The time for the moving of crops was near at hand and the farmer found a congested money market The laborer was paid with promises to pay, and the employer with a sufficient bank account could not pay his baker or his butcher. Men were thrown out of employment by thousands, and already was heard in the distance the tramp of the army of unemployed turning toward the capital, animated by a vague hope of relief. Cotton would be sold abroad for gold prices and paid for in exchange calculated in silver, with the large discount for fluctuation. The United States would sell in a gold market and buy in a silver market Beside, the embarrassments and difficulties of domestic exchange would be intolerable.

On the Ist Mr. Vance (dem., N. C.) spoke against the repeal bill. He said the effect upon the condition of mankind which would follow the destruction of half the currency of the world—amounting in the aggregate to J7.500,000,000—it would be impossible accurately to describe. Still this process of destruction has been going on quietly since 1873, and its result is seen In prices lower in many things than has ever been known in the memory of man. The repeal of the law without any substitute meant the end of silver money for this generation, unless a revolution of the people should restore it, as it did during the fraudulent demonetization of 1873. Let no man doubt that this movement for the repeal of the Sherman ‘act was the result of a conspiracy among the money-holders of the world. Our own secretary of the treasury has said so. It had been repeatedly announced in the British house of commons and nowhere denied that the intent of this combination was to increase the value of gold in the hands of those who held it, and Increase the value of all securities by making them payable in gold. The method of the attack was by the creation of a panic. Some foreigners believed the ory that we intended to go to a silver basis and sent back some of our securities, and the clamor that began in a false pretense ended in a howl of real terror. Never was there a more senseless clamor or more criminal disturbance of public confidence. If the Sherman law sent out gold it surely brought it back. If not what made it return? The fact that in the midst of this clamor our resources are so great as to be able to check the outflow of gold and to turn the tide in our direction ought to restore confidence to every man whose confidence is worth securing.

When the democratic platform denounced the Sherman act as a “cowardly makeshift” did it mean a makeshift for free coinage of silver or the use of gold—a makeshift for bimetallism or monometallism? If the framers of that plank meant that it was a cowardly makeshift for the free coinage of silver, was not this bill for its repeal, without a line in its place, a greater coward and a worse makeshift? If it was meant that it was a.cowardly makeshift for gold monometallism, was not the language of the platform itself both a cowardly ffiil a lying makeshift for the truth, Finally, if the language of the platform taken altogether meant only that we were to oblige the bankers, bondholders and stockbrokers, first, by unconditional repeal, accompanied only by a short stump speech in the belly of the act, saying that it is our policy at some future time—the Lord knows when—to do something further—the Lord knows what—in the direction of carrying out the other promises of the platform, were not its makers and upholders of that declaration of policy and purposes open to the charge of insincerity and of so framing words as to deceive the people whose suffrages they were seeking? If such an interpretation of the platform as was contended for here by those who will vote for repeal, and presumably by the president, had been announced during the campaign of the last year Mr. Cleveland would not have carried North Carolina by 50,000 votes, and he believed further that he could not have carried a single electoral vote south of the Potomac river. Mr. Vance criticised the action of the secretary of the treasury in redeeming the notes issued in payment for bullion in gold, and said that ‘iny technically intelligent man would construe that law to mean that the discretion was to be used in favor of silver when the condition of the treasury required it Senator Vance concluded his speech with a declaration favoring the free and unlimited coinage of silver and explained why ho thought this could be accomplished and maintained. During his remarks Mr. Vance allowed Mr. Cockrell (dem.. Ma) to put in a statement (furnished by the director of the mint) showing the

aggregate production and coinage of gold and atlver in all the nation* of the world from 1873 to 189 A the recapitulation being as follow*: Gold, production, (2,210,000,000; coinage, (2.787.000,000; diver, production. (2,400,000.000; coinage, (2,322,000,000; And Senator Cockrell laid streM upon the fact that the coinage of gold exceeded its production by 8677,000(000, while the coinage of ■liver was 878,000,000 less than production. On the 4th Mr. Cullom (rem Ill.) spoke in favor of unconditional repeal He said, among other things: “Opinion is unanimous that the condition of affair* in this country demands immediate attention and prompt action by congress. Unfortunately for the country there is no agreement of opinion among the people or in congress as to the cause of the distress that has so swiftly and unexpectedly come upon us, or os tc what is of paramount importance—the remedy for it. “I am not one of those who believe that the act of 1890 is in a great degree responsible for the existing financial condition. Other causes have aided in producing the distrust lam for its repeal, however, because, in my opinion the government cannot afford to buy silver and coin or issue paper on it and call it a dollar, when in fact the silver in the dollar, or deposited as security for the dollar, is worth less than sixty cents. Such a performance long continued would embarrass any government

“If the national bank bill were enacted it would result in an increase of our circulating medium with as good money as the world affords It was recommended by the secretary of the treasury, yet before a vote could be had upon it it was fqund to be necessary to discuss all over again the whole national banking system in the same old strain and with the same old arguments that had been heard over and over again since it was established twenty-five years ago. Why not give the country the relief it demands and afterwards, when the people have emerged from their present distressed condition, take up and amend the bank note act? “The Cockrell amendment is the entering wedge that will result in the retirement of the entire national bank circulation—the issue of greenbacks redeemable in coin, in addition to the thousand millions of paper already issued which the government is pledged to redeem. Where is the country drifting ? Is it not time to stop and take bearings ? “The people want silver. But first of all they want to have all of the circulating medium of equal value without regard to material. We now have a per capita circulation of 824.02, which is about as much as we ever had. Therefore, there is no ground for believing that the present situation has been brought about by a scarcity of money. The trouble is the lack of confidence which caused the hoarding of money. Men are afraid to leave their money in banks or to use it in business. I believe that if the silver purchases were suspended it would not be long before some more satisfactory plan for its use would be devised. So long as the Sherman act remains we will come no nearer free coinage. Repeal will not make gold the standard of value Unless we are prepared to go to a silver basis we cannot alone support bimetallism. Repeal will bring about an agreement among nations.” At this point Senator Cullom entered upon an argument to demonstrate the unsoundness of the proposition that a fixed ratio could not be maintained between gold.and silver, and, continuing, be said: “The United States must adopt a policy which will do justice to all classes and all sections of the country. Universal bankruptcy would be as fatal to the creditor class as to the debtor class. I sympathize with the people of the silver states, but it is necessary to have in mind the interests of all the people and to secure free coinage, if at all, upon an enduring basis.”

Turning his attention to other causes than the Sherman act for the present depression, Senator Cullom said that he doubted if the credit of the United States was as good to-day as it was a year ago, and continued:. “Then the value of our international and foreign commerce was larger than ever before known; manufactures and mining were turning out larger products; more labor was employed and wastes were higher. Now the credit of the nation is called in question for the first time since the war; factories are closed, mines are shut down afid a million men are idle. ” Senator Cullom cited the financial history of the country before and since Lincoln’s administration to show the enormous recuperative power of the government when its finances were properly administered. He showed how, under a protective tariff, money poured into the national treasury. The people bore taxation as they bore arms to save the union. The naiion entered upon a career of commercial and industrial vigor never before experienced. The total value of the property devoted to manufactures and mining in 1892 amounted to nearly nine thousand million dollars, the result, he declared, in a large measure of the financial policy of the government prevailing for the last thirty years. In 1893, he said, a party came into possession of all branches of the government pledged to repeal the protective tariff under which the country had been developed and to overturn the national bank system which had furnished the best money the people have ever had and replace it by state bank money at a discount everywhere except in the neighborhood of its issue. What wonder that doubt and want of confidence seized upon the people, which resulted in the almost complete paralysis of business and the hiding away of money and this extra session. He hoped that he was mistaken, but he believed that we would not again have good times if the pledges of the democratic party were to be observed. In conclusion Senator Cullom compared tile financial planks of both parties, holding that they were much alike, at least in respect to the maintenance of the value of the money in circulation. He showed that the Sherman law had closed the mines and that under its further operation the United States would use only foreign silver. The people wanted no fiat money, but they did want a dollar intrinsically worth 100 cents. Said Senator Cullom:

“The business men of all classes appeal to us to pass the bill for the repeal of the silver act of 1890. Multitudes of laborers are pleading for work. If there is anything we as legislators can do consistent with national honor and finaclal safety to lift the clouds that darken the situation, remove the difficulties ayd start the wheels of commerce which are now rusting on the railroad tracks, in the shops, factories and mills let us do it at once.” Mr. Coke (dem., Tex.) made a speech based more on the president’s message than, on the repeal bllL He said: “If this bill passes the free men of America will have bowed their necks to the yoke of European domination in their foreign and domestic financial affairs. Rothschild and the ißank of England, with their connections, dictate the financial policies of Europe, and if the single gold standard is established in America, then Rothschild and the Bank of England, with their New York associates, will become tha arbiters of American finance and the dictators of our financial policy, because they control the gold which we will be compelled to have.” Mr. Peffer (pop., Kan.) called up the amendment offered by him, and said: “The administration had come to congress demanding a particular act—the repeal of the Sherman law. It had suggested no policy which would admit of the usual compromise in legislative proceedings. The administration had demanded the pending bill or nothing; and that the people whom he represented had accepted the challenge. They proposed to give no quarter, as the administration proposed to give none. A large majority of the farmers in the south were members of the Farmers’ Alliance, and ono of the cardinal doctrines of the alliance was the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the old ratia ” Mr. Peffer turned his attention to the New York newspapers. He declared that the insolence of the metropolitan press was to him intolerable and that the people of the west h»d no patience with it. Before Mr. Peffer concluded the senate ad burned.